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March 30, 2014

Melissa Gira Grant for Conway Hall's Ethical Society

Conway Hall

March 30, 2014

10.30am - 12.30pm

Conway Hall

25 Red Lion Square, HolbornLondon, WC1R 4RL United Kingdom

Melissa Gira Grant discusses Sex Work, Ethics and Human Rights

The sex industry is an endless source of prurient drama for the mainstream media. Recent years have seen a panic over 'online red light districts,' which supposedly seduce vulnerable young women into a life of degradation. But rarely do these fearful, salacious dispatches come from sex workers themselves, and rarely do they deviate from the position that sex workers must be rescued from their condition, and the industry simply abolished—a position common among feminists and conservatives alike.

In Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work, writer and freelance journalist Melissa Gira Grant challenges the myths about selling sex and those who perpetuate them. Arguing for an overhaul in the way we think about sex work, she criticizes both conditions within the sex industry and its criminalization, and argues that separating sex work from the 'legitimate' economy only harms those who perform sexual labor. For her, sex work is work, and sex workers’ rights are human rights.